Winkle pulled at the bridle of the tall horse till he was black in the face; and having at length succeeded in stopping him, dismounted, handed the whip to Mr.
Winkle, who was still at the end of the bridle, at a rather quicker rate than fast walking, in the direction from which they had just come.
At the critical moment before the jump is taken, I am foolish enough to seize the bridle, and suddenly check the pony.
This done, he disappears in the mist, with the bridle hanging loose, and the pony's nose to the ground, as before.
First, a stiff heavy collar just on my neck, and a
bridle with great side-pieces against my eyes called blinkers, and blinkers indeed they were, for I could not see on either side, but only straight in front of me; next, there was a small saddle with a nasty stiff strap that went right under my tail; that was the crupper.
The mule was shy, and was so frightened at her
bridle being seized that rearing up she flung her rider to the ground over her haunches.
And he took the Sheriff's horse by the
bridle rein, and led him through the lane and by many a thicket till the main road was reached.
He emphasized the words "some one," and loosing the horse's
bridle,--
We will suppose that one man alone has to catch and mount a horse, which as yet had never felt
bridle or saddle.
But Rouletabille had seized the bridle and, to my utter astonishment, stopped the carriage with a vigorous hand.
He turned up by the road he had come from the chateau, Rouletabille still retaining his hold on the horse's bridle.
It was on one of those mornings, common in early spring, when the year, fickle and changeable in its youth like all other created things, is undecided whether to step backward into winter or forward into summer, and in its uncertainty inclines now to the one and now to the other, and now to both at once--wooing summer in the sunshine, and lingering still with winter in the shade--it was, in short, on one of those mornings, when it is hot and cold, wet and dry, bright and lowering, sad and cheerful, withering and genial, in the compass of one short hour, that old John Willet, who was dropping asleep over the copper boiler, was roused by the sound of a horse's feet, and glancing out at window, beheld a traveller of goodly promise, checking his
bridle at the Maypole door.
